How To Install Rear Quarter Panels And Mini Tubs - Step By Step

One of the shortcomings of the early Camaro is the lack of room to stuff some serious rear tires under the stock rear quarter panels. The shock mounts are outboard of the framerails, and the framerails themselves angle outward toward the rear corners of the car starting at about the axle centerline. These two factors have eliminated the option of traditional mini tubs - that is until Detroit Speed & Engineering developed a kit to make mini tubs, and a 335 tire, possible inside the stock F-body rear quarter panels. The Detroit Speed kit comes with a DVD and detailed instructions for installing these parts in a solid body, but this car needed both rear quarter panels and a trunk floor which, in a way, makes things easier because removing those parts grants greater access to do the wheeltub and framerail modifications.

Because high-quality, accurate parts are essential to the success of any restoration, Muscle Car Restorations (MCR) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, uses Auto Metal Direct (AMD) as its source for sheetmetal. The modified inner halves of the wheeltubs from Detroit Speed played very nicely with the outer halves from AMD. Although we're taking a pretty big bite doing the rear quarter panels, trunk floor, and mini tubs all at once, this is more than likely what most of you will be faced with. So let's go for it.